The Movie: “sex, lies, and videotape.”The Look:...

The Movie: “sex, lies, and videotape.”

The Look: We’re not sure this will start a stampede to the Laura Ashley boutique, but our repressed heroine, Ann (Andie MacDowell, pictured here with James Spader), dresses in a startling combination of droopy little sundresses, pearls and surprisingly sexy lingerie, including black lace bras and even a white G-string, from Victoria’s Secret.

The Costumer: James Ryder takes home the costume credit for this movie. (He also provides the movie’s makeup artistry, which he does again on the yet-to-be-released films “Steel Magnolias” and “Blaze.”)

The Plan: Writer/director/editor Steve Soderbergh saw Ann as a plain-looking “yuppie-Junior League-PTA type,” says Ryder. “So we went out of our way to find the plainest-looking clothes we could find,” like sundresses that look like tablecloths. Most are sleeveless, long and made of plain white cotton; some are Laura Ashley florals. As for the other characters, Laura San Giacomo’s Cynthia--the tramp--dresses strictly trashy in gold lame and black leather. The yuppie lawyer, John (Peter Gallagher), does his profession proud in conservative suits, navy suspenders and dark paisley bow ties. The wanderer, Graham (Spader), has his wardrobe whittled down to bare bones: Levi 501 jeans, black Western-style shirts, Red Wing steel-toed work boots.

The Program: Ryder is a fan of old Westerns and gangster movies in which, even without dialogue, wardrobe identified characters, and he puts some of that practice to work here. In one scene, Cynthia actually wears a black hat, symbol of the baddie in all those spaghetti Westerns. Meanwhile, Ann’s Plain Jane exterior, her virginal white dresses speak for her sexual repression, but underneath it all--literally--she’s wearing sexy underwear, including a white G-string beneath her white satin nightgown. “The message is that inside she’s a very sexual person, but not in her marriage.”

The Conflict: Making Ann look like a prude was a challenge in itself. “The fact is, Andie MacDowell is a very beautiful woman, and almost anything you put on her looks glamorous,” Ryder bemoans. A more dramatic problem, perhaps, was showing how Ann changes from frigid to far warmer.

The Payoff: In the movie’s denouement, she finally heats up, and so do her clothes. She wears a bare, black tank top, tight blue jeans and a white bra.